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1 Year Later: No Arrests In Murder Of Young Surgical Technician

It's been one year since a young Nashville woman was murdered in Midtown and left in a dumpster.

Ashley Brown was beaten and strangled after walking out of an apartment near Vanderbilt last December. Her body was found four days later at a trash disposal site on Freightliner Drive.

"Our biggest fear is that the person thinks they got away with it, and they do it again," Trever Brown said.

Ashley's death left a scar that neither time nor distance can heal for her father living in Arizona.

"She loved life and having that passion snuffed out... it, it hurts," Brown said.

Ashley had lived in Nashville for about nine months and was working as a surgical technician at St. Thomas West. On the night of her murder, she was at a friend's apartment on 25th Avenue North near Centennial Park when she left to presumably smoke a cigarette around 4 a.m. on Saturday, December 17.

"We know that she walked out of that apartment. We have no idea what happened from that point on," said Cold Case Detective Matt Filter.

Detective Filter has been working on the Ashley Brown case since day one. It was originally a missing persons case before her body was found on December 21 and later ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.

"Somebody grabbed her or she may have wandered off to the parking garage or somewhere else where there weren't a lot of cameras where someone may have grabbed her there," Filter said.

Filter said they've looked at surveillance, combed through Ashley's cell phone, and interviewed everyone she was with that night, but they still have no substantial leads.

"We know the person who did this will ultimately be judged far beyond what any judge on this earth can do," Brown said.

Ashley would have turned 29 on December 22. Her family will spend the day celebrating her life and dedicating a bench in her honor at their local zoo in Tucson, Arizona.

Anyone with information that can help police has been urged to call Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463. Your anonymous tip could earn you a cash reward.

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